Category: News

In ancient Japan, hand fans, such as oval and silk fans were influenced greatly by the Chinese fans. The earliest visual depiction of fans in Japan dates back to the 6th century CE, with burial tomb paintings showed drawings of fans. The folding fan was invented in Japan, with date ranging from the 6th to 9th centuries. It was a court… Read more →

On a sweltering summer afternoon, Japanese beat the heat the way their ancestors have done for centuries: head for the waterfront for some cooling breezes, put on a casual yukata kimono, and pack their hand fans. While flat, round fans, or uchiwa, originated in China, Japanese are credited with inventing folding fans over 1,000 years ago. Folding fans come in… Read more →

From CBS Sunday Morning: “Kitto Katto” is more than just the Japanese name for the candy we all know as Kit Kat. It’s more like Japan’s national obsession: At a shop in Tokyo’s bustling Ginza district, luxury Kit Kats are on full display. That’s right: luxury Kit Kats! And the mastermind behind these $5 Kit Kat confections is pastry chef… Read more →

Yohji Yamamoto, debuted his first fashion collection in Paris in 1981. In an interview with the New York Times in 1983, Yamamoto said of his designs: “‘I think that my men’s clothes look as good on women as my women’s clothing […] When I started designing, I wanted to make men’s clothes for women.” More recently he has expounded: “When I… Read more →

In Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, the largest room in the home of Hisao Maegaki, president of the sake brewery Kamoizumi Shuzo, is set for a feast. Zabuton floor cushions and red ozen, the low tray-tables traditionally used for dining in Japan, form a circle on the tatami floor, and the windows look out onto two exquisitely manicured rock gardens. The guests… Read more →

TIME asks Gwen Stefani of NBC’s The Voice and No Doubt fame, “Looking back on Love. Angel. Music. Baby., do you regret the Harajuku Girls given the criticism you received?” Guess what, she doesn’t! From TIME: No. There’s always going to be two sides to everything. For me, everything that I did with the Harajuku Girls was just a pure compliment and… Read more →

Kathryn Fanelli, a painter in Amherst, Massachusetts, works with traditional Japanese suminagashi (“floating ink”) techniques — dropping pigments onto the surface of water and mixing them into designs before lifting the image from the water using paper. Fanelli says she began using the technique five years ago after she experienced something similar in a dream. The Eastern approach to art, she… Read more →